Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

[Crimsontide27]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Ill chime in on this one.

I joined the military right out of highschool and did Infantry for 3 years and then switched over to Aviation and did another 3 years. Graduated honor grad from the aviation school and deployed to Korea and Iraq from there.

While in service I earned alot of awards and decorations and my last job was as a supervisor of $240 million worth of Blackhawk helicopters on the DMZ in Korea.

Upon leaving service, I decided it was in my best interest to attend college.

Since I was going to be in college for awhile, I just decided to pick up a part time job at something like Best Buy or something similar....

Every job I applied for....entry level jobs for Gods sakes..../denied. I got fed up after 6 months of looking for a job and had to settle for flipping burgers at a freaking Krystal.

Went from a staff sgt in the army to a line cook at Krystal. It was embarissing.

Fast forward 4 years and I got my degree in Bus Mngt , graduated with honors, part of 3 different academic frats etc...

Go out looking for a job armed with 6 years of military experience and now a BA degree...../nothing.

In the 4 years since I have graduated, I have yet to find any position that I could NOT have gotten without a degree. Everywhere I go wants me to start at the very bottom.

The bottom meaning positions filled with high school drop outs and rejects, not entry level managment positions.

On the flip side, I have a friend that failed 6th grade 3 times and failed the 9th grade twice and dropped out of school. He worked at a mall kiosk for T Mobile after dropping out in the 9th grade.....3 years later...he is now a district manager in Houston Texas.

If I had it to do all over again, I would NEVER EVER spend money for college. Its the worst invesment I have ever made.

Jobs are all about networking, not a degree.

I now have a good paying job, but its bartending and serving. Its certainly not a career.

Sad fact of it is that I would guess over 90% of our servers and bartenders all have degrees, but no jobs to be found that pay over min wage pretty much.

I wasnt looking for high paying positions, but I sure wasnt expecting to have a 50k education and go back to only being qualified for the same jobs I was before I attended college.

Your mileage my vary, but in the experience that I have faced , its pretty darn common.

[Crimsontide27]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Agree with title...Not to mention everyone is getting pregnat. 700 for rent? LOL I am paying 275 at a decent place. Look for roomies.

To add to that...

I live in Orlando FL and the rent for a trashy 1 bedroom apartment is $800. Add electricty, water, gas if needed etc..and you are looking at around $1200 per month for a 1 bedroom.

You would think that wages down here would be higher to support that cost of living, but the opposite is true. Since the largest employers down here are theme parks, most of the county makes either min wage or a dollar or two higher.

Ton of families actually rent out rooms in their own homes just to try to make ends meet

[Cebby]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Yeah this generation's working class really has it easier will all of their jobs sent out of the country.

This generation's working class should have been smart enough to know that their parents' ridiculous union concessions weren't going to last.

[USF11]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Every job I applied for....entry level jobs for Gods sakes..../denied. I got fed up after 6 months of looking for a job and had to settle for flipping burgers at a freaking Krystal.

In the 4 years since I have graduated, I have yet to find any position that I could NOT have gotten without a degree. Everywhere I go wants me to start at the very bottom.

The bottom meaning positions filled with high school drop outs and rejects, not entry level managment positions.

On the flip side, I have a friend that failed 6th grade 3 times and failed the 9th grade twice and dropped out of school. He worked at a mall kiosk for T Mobile after dropping out in the 9th grade.....3 years later...he is now a district manager in Houston Texas.

If I had it to do all over again, I would NEVER EVER spend money for college. Its the worst invesment I have ever made.

Jobs are all about networking, not a degree.

I now have a good paying job, but its bartending and serving. Its certainly not a career.

Sad fact of it is that I would guess over 90% of our servers and bartenders all have degrees, but no jobs to be found that pay over min wage pretty much.

I wasnt looking for high paying positions, but I sure wasnt expecting to have a 50k education and go back to only being qualified for the same jobs I was before I attended college.

I know its friggin crazy. The whole ordeal has completely jaded my view of the world and people.

I'm 28 and I might have to move in with my mom and brothers just to keep up with expenses. Why even bother trying?

*Blood Pressure Rising*

[Maxattax3]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Jobs are all about networking, not a degree.

truth.

[superjames1992]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Ill chime in on this one.

I joined the military right out of highschool and did Infantry for 3 years and then switched over to Aviation and did another 3 years. Graduated honor grad from the aviation school and deployed to Korea and Iraq from there.

While in service I earned alot of awards and decorations and my last job was as a supervisor of $240 million worth of Blackhawk helicopters on the DMZ in Korea.

Upon leaving service, I decided it was in my best interest to attend college.

Since I was going to be in college for awhile, I just decided to pick up a part time job at something like Best Buy or something similar....

Every job I applied for....entry level jobs for Gods sakes..../denied. I got fed up after 6 months of looking for a job and had to settle for flipping burgers at a freaking Krystal.

Went from a staff sgt in the army to a line cook at Krystal. It was embarissing.

Fast forward 4 years and I got my degree in Bus Mngt , graduated with honors, part of 3 different academic frats etc...

Go out looking for a job armed with 6 years of military experience and now a BA degree...../nothing.

In the 4 years since I have graduated, I have yet to find any position that I could NOT have gotten without a degree. Everywhere I go wants me to start at the very bottom.

The bottom meaning positions filled with high school drop outs and rejects, not entry level managment positions.

On the flip side, I have a friend that failed 6th grade 3 times and failed the 9th grade twice and dropped out of school. He worked at a mall kiosk for T Mobile after dropping out in the 9th grade.....3 years later...he is now a district manager in Houston Texas.

If I had it to do all over again, I would NEVER EVER spend money for college. Its the worst invesment I have ever made.

Jobs are all about networking, not a degree.

I now have a good paying job, but its bartending and serving. Its certainly not a career.

Sad fact of it is that I would guess over 90% of our servers and bartenders all have degrees, but no jobs to be found that pay over min wage pretty much.

I wasnt looking for high paying positions, but I sure wasnt expecting to have a 50k education and go back to only being qualified for the same jobs I was before I attended college.

Your mileage my vary, but in the experience that I have faced , its pretty darn common.

I think Business Degrees have this problem. There's just too many of them and not enough jobs. I doubt the economy is helping much, either.

Degrees do mean A LOT in other areas, though. Some jobs you simply cannot do without obtaining a degree to become specialized in an area. For example, you can't get a job at the National Weather Service without a degree in Atmospheric Sciences. Even if you're the best weather forecaster in the world, you can't get the job if you didn't go to college and major in it.

Engineering seems to be a really good thing to go into right now since there's a general shortage of them (from what I've read). I almost decided to major in engineering, but decided against it right before I applied for college and went with a BS in Meteorology instead.
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[Jukeman]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Trade school FTW....You can learn business/History/English and etc by going to the libary....

Heh, you can use your "trade" to start your own business...

[TheMatrix31]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

College is ridiculously overrated, in my opinion. Way too much artificial importance placed on it.

[ILLCHILL]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Hey guys. First off, after years here I don't think there has been a thread that could so easily fall off a cliff yet stayed the course as well as this one. Good job mods letting the discussion go on.

Thanks to the contributers as well, I'm learning a great deal.

Here's my situation/2 cents...

I'm a 20 year old college student who attended private college for 2 years and now I am attending one of the University of Mass. schools. Went from about $31,000 to $12,000. After one semester of the switch I am extremely happy I made it. I live with my parents still and I have a great job attempting to climb the ladder and make more connections with The Boston Globe (sports mostly, but I branch off sometimes.) I will ride journalism as far as it takes me, but I'm currently majoring in English then will follow it up with a grad school for teaching. I figure with the downtime I have from teaching, I can always freelance and add some money.

My opinions: High school is overrated, but college is not. Of course, you generally need HS to get into college, but the important material you learn in HS gets re-drilled into your head in college. The classes in college beyond Gen. Ed is where you really get a bang for your buck.

I also find that many of the people I know having trouble getting jobs had gotten business degrees or psych. degrees, which seem to be mega-popular but the person had not focused on a niche before leaving, and with the job market flooded with these degrees, they are becoming more of an albatross than a benefit.

I don't think "who you know" is more important that "what you know", but I think there is a fine balance between the two. The "who" is definitely more important than it should be.

Also, in Mass., you need to take the MCAS to graduate, or at least did when I attended high school. This is beyond a joke, since it focuses on only a couple subjects in order to graduate. So why the hell did I take these other classes?

I know this is messy, might not make much sense, but it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm trying to stay up for something. Peace.

[rockchisler]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Ummmm yeah garabage men make $45,000 a year in most major cities. And lawn people depending on the company they work for, can make $36,000 a year. And finally not EVERYBODY that work at a grocery store or store period are high school or college drop outs.

You got a lot of people with Bachelor degrees that work at Walmart as cashiers. It is the sign of the times, people got to work somewhere. Hell I knew a few people with master degrees bartending or workng in a store as a cashier or waitress because their job got sent over seas when the insurance and banks took a hit.

I wasted all that time in college when I could have been a garbage man..dang.

[DocHolliday]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Also, College was an effing blast, well worth the fun times anyways

[EWRMETS]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

I have always thought that the first requirement for Financial Assistance of any form should be a High School diploma or GED.

What about the kids of people without a high school diploma or GED? They starve to death because their parents are screw ups? It's a tough situation.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Now this makes me sick

http://www.theprovince.com/frenzy+there/2453747/story.html

http://www.theprovince.com/Time+stagger+welfare+payouts/2453749/story.html

I work hard and pay my taxes .......... to support drug addicts who celebrate Welfare Wednesday when they take their hand out and blow it on drugs.

I also live in a place where there's a safe injection site. Hey we have to make sure the druggies can shoot up with clean needles and in a safe environment .......

[EWRMETS]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Now this makes me sick

http://www.theprovince.com/frenzy+there/2453747/story.html

http://www.theprovince.com/Time+stagger+welfare+payouts/2453749/story.html

I work hard and pay my taxes .......... to support drug addicts who celebrate Welfare Wednesday when they take their hand out and blow it on drugs.

I also live in a place where there's a safe injection site. Hey we have to make sure the druggies can shoot up with clean needles and in a safe environment .......

Would you rather them contract HIV? You'll pay for their Medicaid bills.

[USF11]

Re: Drop Outs are Killing the Economy

Would you rather them contract HIV? You'll pay for their Medicaid bills.

Ahh the joys of politics. Down goes the thread.